Anti-dumping: Reimbursement for subsequent documentation possible soon?

Is it possible to submit additional documentation if company-specific anti-dumping duties are claimed? So far, this has always been denied, especially by Hamburg customs. The Munich tax court has now referred a question to the European Court of Justice on the submission of documents for the application of company-specific anti-dumping duties. Companies for which anti-dumping duties have been imposed over the last three years and for which retrospective commercial invoices have not been accepted now have reason to hope. However, the refund periods must be strictly observed.

Subsequent submission of documents possible?

We had already reported elsewhere that the main customs offices had, in principle, rejected subsequent documentation to claim company-specific anti-dumping duties. In this respect, the provisions of the Customs Code were relied upon, according to which the decisive point in time for determining customs duties is the acceptance of the customs declaration. Accordingly, subsequently submitted documents should not be considered. The Finance Court in Hamburg also tended towards such an interpretation.

In practice, two main errors occurred: in some cases, they forgot to specify the corresponding TARIC additional code for the exempted company. On the other hand, sometimes only inadequate documents such as commitment invoices or export commitment certificates were submitted. In both cases, the main customs offices always assumed that it was not possible to submit additional documents. They also rely on a decree of the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Refund of anti-dumping duties possible

Companies should therefore now submit applications for refunds if they too have been charged anti-dumping duties because the main customs office was of the opinion that the relevant documents had not been submitted in time. If the European Court of Justice, which now has to decide this question, decides in favour of the companies, considerable refunds would be conceivable. However, companies must always comply with the legal deadlines.

In this respect, advice from a lawyer is recommended. Moreover, the Munich Finance Court had already indicated that it was of the opinion that a refund possibility must be possible in principle. It remains to be seen how the European Court of Justice will decide here.

Dieser Artikel wurde am 9. August 2018 erstellt. Er wurde am 30. September 2023 aktualisiert. Die fachliche Zweitprüfung hat Rechtsanwalt Dr. Tristan Wegner durchgeführt.